Every year I get cought up in the autumn bokeh again, the leafs turning red. It is one year ago I did the same thing with the Auto-Takumar 85mm/1.9, this year it’s Super-Takumar 85mm/1.9. It’s bokeh suits me for this type of images. I just hope I can grow as photographer even if the motifs are the same ;)

I wonder how you look upon this question, “What makes a good picture?”. I believe it is when the artist manage to communicate a feeling.

This image of grass, I wanted to relay the sence off standing in a field with waving straws, the freedom. One might even start thinking about what happened to the straws not standing up any more: Crop field circle by aliens? Animals having a feast? Winds?

But the image is very simple. I have tried to cut out what I wanted to show and no distractions. That’s why I sometimes have a hard time with photographers who want the biggest effect out of everything, to use the most extreme angle or perspective or color just because they can not because the image needs it. It’s also why I have a hard time with photographers only concerned by technical qualities – they bore me to death. But that’s just me.

This field was made with the 60’s M42-lens aus Jena Sonnar 135mm/3.5 zebra on Canon EOS 350D.

A day in the park with my daugter digging in the sandbox. We hade fun with some friends and had a good break from everyday troubles. I like the attitude in this photo! I think this was made with Asahi Super-Multi-Coated Takumar 55mm/1.8 M42-lens. I had it on the camera all afternoon. It’s has a good feeling with fast focus and quality.

These beautiful flowers Aquilegia vulgaris grow in a place near my home (yes, I live in a nice place). They come in different shades of blue to white. In swedish they are called Akleja, according to Wikipedia en english name is European Columbine. The image is made with my lens Asahi Super-Takumar 28mm/3.5, an M42 lens attached to my Canon EOS 350D. I also used an M42 extensionring from Chinon. I kind of like the result.

This Pentacon 50/1.8 lens my wife brought home from the fleemarket is growing on me. It cost very little together with the Praktica-camera, and was a bit smashed in the filterthreads (I fixed this brutally by forcing a broken filters ring on the front on the lens = new filterthreads). Maybe you saw the bokeh-shots? Well, here’s a tulip I shot at my wifes exhibition.

Pentacon tulip

I really like the bokeh of many manual lenses. I gave this Pentacon (previous Meyer) a try, and loved it too. These f1.7-f2 lenses are easier to use then the f1.4 I think… it is easier to get the smooth feeling I want.

Soft thorns

Fungus wideopen

Took a short walk in the wood yesterday but the cold really got to me – at least I got one testshot of the bokeh with Yashica ML 50mm/1.4 before I gave up. These are some dead plants. One thing I noticed was that that highlights in bokeh when the lens is wide open get hard edges on the circles. Something to avoid, I think. Otherwise the lens feels great.

Interesting bokeh of my Asahi Opt.Co. Super-Takumar 105mm/2.8 M42 on Canon EOS 350D:

Autumn leaf hanging on...

I was listening on David Bowie singing “My Death” while editing this image, I thought the feeling was appropiate to this leaf that’s near death ;)

[flash http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=rIzE3j84kKU w=425 h=344]

Maybe not the best saturation (it was a gray day, though), but sharp and very interesting bokeh. Here at f2, if I remember it correct. Today my C/Y->EOS adapter arrived, so now I can try my ML-lenses and compare. I see a test of 50mm-lenses in the not to distant future :)

Yashinon DX 50mm/1.7 berries

Bokeh - If your starting out with photography and manual lenses, you will probably come a cross that word. The word comes from ”boke”, the Japanese word for blur. It is used to describe the part of a picture that are out of focus, and that the lens shows as blurred. Bokeh of lenses may have very different aesthetic qualities. This is most apperent in larger apertures, when part of the picture is a lot out of focus. Soft edges on the blurry reflexes are often considered preferable!

Bokeh of Helios 44-3

Some great reading about bokeh:

Great Bokeh-test from Rick Denney
Ken Rockwell on bokeh
Understanding bokeh by Merklinger